1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to holders or containers for retaining and transporting plants. More specifically, the present invention relates to plant holders or containers constructed for facilitating the removal of the plant therefrom prior to the generally permanent placement of the plant in soil.
2. State or the Art
It is common procedure in commercial greenhouses and large-scale reforestation and farming operations to initially germinate and/or grow new plants in a controlled environment. Such environments increase the likelihood of the new plant""s survival during the first few months of the plant""s life. The new plants are typically maintained in the controlled environment until they reach a predetermined stage of development. Upon reaching this stage of development, the new plants are transported to a selected location where they are placed in the soil to continue their growth on a long-term basis.
Growing new plants in a controlled environment spatially removed from their intended long-term growing situs requires the plant grower to provide a temporary container for the new plant during its maturation in the greenhouse. Conventionally, new plants are grown in small plastic containers. These containers are oftentimes arranged in arrays or matrixes and are known by designations such as pony packs, trays, flats, etc. Not only do these containers provide a means of retaining the new plant and its growing medium during the initial growth stages of the plant, but furthermore, these containers provide a means for transporting the new plant to its eventual long-term planting situs.
As the new develops, its root structure becomes enmeshed in the growth medium which surrounds it in its container. Disruption of that association of the root structure and its associated growth medium can prove damaging to the plant and its long-term survivability. In those instances wherein the container is manufactured of a nonbiodegradable material, the plant root structure must be removed from the container in order to plant the new plant in the soil of its long-term growth situs. Given the importance of maintaining the root structure in close association with the growth medium surrounding it in the container, it becomes important that the user be able to remove the root structure from the container with a minimum disruption of the root structure""s association with its growth medium. Traditionally, users have encountered significant difficulties in safely removing the root structure from its respective container. In many instances, the user would grasp the plant by its stem and attempt to pull the plant root structure from the container. In the even that the growth medium or the root structure was securely lodged in the container, e.g., the growth medium being dry and fairly hard, the root structure of each seedling grows to an extent so as to fill the capacity of its container, it becomes difficult to dislodge the seedling from the pack or pot. In particular, the roots of the plant may become lodged and root-bound to the inside surface of the pack or pot, and therefore, the roots are liable to tearing and damage during removal from the packs or pots. In the aforedescribed circumstances, as the user applied more force to the plant stem to secure the plant""s removal from the container, he or she would oftentimes break the stem of the plant, thereby destroying the plant.
In those instances wherein the growth medium was very wet, grasping the stem and pulling on it would often result in the root structure being disassociated from its growth medium. This dissociation prejudices the chances of the plant surviving once it is planted in the soil. In other situations, the user would compress the container prior to extracting the plant root structure from the container with the expectation that the compression would ease the removal of the root structure from the container. In these instances, the compression resulted in damage to the root structure. It follows that considerable damage and loss of plants have occurred due to the lack of available means of safely removing the root structure and accompanying growth medium from its initial growth container.
Accordingly, it is expedient to devise an arrangement for dislodging a plant root and its associated growth medium from variously sized containers without damaging the plant and further, to remove the plant in an efficient manner.
As such, it is important to ensure that the container arrangement offers sufficient facility and convenience to dislodge each plant together with its roots and growth medium in such a manner that detrimental separation of the growth medium from the roots does not occur at the time of transplantation. It is essential, especially in transplanting projects, to ensure that the survival chances of replanted plants are high, and root separation from the growth medium during transplanting is certain to be avoided.
Various efforts have been made in the past to provide containers for developing plants. Illustrative of these efforts are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,159 teaches a unitary seedling xe2x80x9cflatxe2x80x9d made of rigid plastic and containing a plurality of cells in the form of square, downwardly tapering recesses. The seedling flat of this reference has no special facilities for releasing the seedlings together with their root balls. In the ""159 patent, the seedlings have to be apparently pulled out of the cells, offering no special advantages for safe and easy removal of the seedlings root balls, especially if the roots are lodged and root bound to the inside of the cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,416 to Bergeron et al. teaches a seedling arrangement for reforestation purposes, containing a plurality of tubes adapted to be supported vertically in a tray. The tubes are intended for elevated growing, but contain no special provision or convenience for easily dislodging the seedling without damage and separation being inflicted on the root ball. In fact, the vertically extending ribs, provided on the inner cylindrical surface of the tubes in the ""416 patent, tend to make the tubes rigid and stiff by reinforcing, whereby the tubes will not easily flex. As such, the rigid tubes necessitates rolling, pinching, or pulling action on the rigid container in order to release the seedling, making it very difficult to safely release the seedling together with the rood ball and growth medium without damaging the seedling. In many cases, it may be necessary to tip the container upside down in an effort to remove the plant, resulting in root and/or plant damage.
In an effort to prevent damaging the root system while transplanting seedlings, U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,647 to Blackmore, Jr. discloses a plant container with a plurality of downwardly extending compartments, each made for containing the root ball and system of a seedling. The bottom end of the compartment is constructed of thin material and is slitted to form yieldable flap members that can bend and reverse inwardly so that an ejection plunger can move upwardly therethrough to thereby eject the contents of the compartment. However, the use of an additional piece to complete this task, such as an ejection plunger, is cumbersome and inefficient, and such a device may easily be lost or misplaced. Further, depending on the consistency of the soil, damage may easily still occur to the root system of a seedling by forcing the ejection plunger through the bottom of each compartment to dislogde the contents thereof.
Based on the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus and an associated method that would at once provide a functional container for young plant development while simultaneously providing a means for easily removing the plant""s root structure and associated growth medium from the container at the time of transplantation. Such a new container would also provide a means of minimizing the likelihood of the root structure being damaged or dissociated from its growth medium
The present invention provides an apparatus for retaining a developing plant in association with its growth medium. The apparatus is adapted with structure for facilitating the removal of the plant root structure and its associated growth medium while minimizing damage to the plant and any disassociation of the plant root structure from its growth medium. The apparatus includes a container structure having at least one upstanding stripped sidewall. The sidewall is configured to have a portion thereof which is adapted to be readily away from its general association with the sidewall by means of the user applying a small manual force to the sidewall portion, e.g., by means of his or her fingers. In preferred constructions, the sidewall portion includes at least one slot defined within the sidewall. The slot extends from a free edge of the sidewall into the body of the sidewall. The slot functions as a stress riser sufficient that upon the application of a modest amount of force to the sidewall proximate the slot, the sidewall may be made to rupture along a length, e.g., a height, thereof, causing the sidewall to open up and thereby permit the user to safely remove the plant root structure and growth medium without the need of compressing the root structure and growth medium or applying inordinate force to the plant stem.
In some embodiments of the invention, the container may include an outwardly extending flange in association with the upstanding sidewall, preferably disposed on an upper portion of the sidewall. In these embodiments, the slot or slots may extend from a free edge of the flange in to the body of the flange. In some instances, the slot may extend through the flange and into the body of the sidewall itself.
In the present invention, the stress riser slot results in a strip-away sidewall so that the soft surrounding the root structure of a plant remains intact and undamaged during the removal process, thereby enabling the user to quickly and productively transplant a new plant from the container, resulting in an increased survival rate for the plant. A method for removing the plant from the container is also disclosed.